One is easily disillusioned by the extreme events happening around us. The sheer magnitude of the consequences of being infected with a virus like Covid-19 is just one of many such events. It’s much easier to disassociate with the reality of the threat and assume that the threat will disappear, or it will infect someone else – but not you, or anyone close to you – and if it did, the symptoms would be mild or maybe not noticeable.

Even with the Covid-19 (SARS CoV-2) Pandemic being upon us right now – with thousands dying every day – many people are unable to succumb to the reality of it all and accept that fate may soon be upon them. Denial is obviously not a preferred approach - Yet, what good will it do anyone if we all burst into a state of panic.  Instead – the right approach – which one must admit is being attempted at higher levels of government, is an organized and systematic approach where the threat is realized, and all available resources activated to deal with the problem at hand.

The infection rate and death rate of Covid-19 victims are measurable. By this I mean it is possible to analyse infection rate and death rate quite accurately by testing the population for infection and to determine if a death is Covid-19 related or not. Statistics for this are well documented. This allows us to see the threat level in detail, that Covid-19 poses. This is not the case with the current crises of global warming. The threat of global warming is actually much worse than Covid-19 and will, if not dealt with, kill many more. But the lack of visibility of this threat means it is also more difficult to accept.

From our perception of things, our global environment is slowly, but steadily changing. However, it is as Albert Einstein described things – relative. How well we perceive current climate changes will depend on where we live and with the relative frequency we visit other parts of the world. However, our human lives are short and our footprint in time is but a sudden flash in comparison to the development of our surrounding environment through the ages. As little as 50 years ago, so as to be able to determine what was really happening to our environment – one needed to look back in history to see how our climate had changed and cycled through time. This was done by the scientists of the time. Today, the rate of change is faster and more evident, so much so that the consensus of the world is that we are experiencing global climate change because of the effect we have on our environment. The rate of climate change is in fact not slow or steady – it is rapid, with an ever-increasing rate of change – meaning the rate of change is not linear.

Predictions of global weather, climate and sea level rise are disheartening at best. They rime well with any major Hollywood doomsday blockbuster. In the animated family movie Wall-E, the human species has ruined earth with so much waste and pollution that the earths’ ability to sustain life fails. But our species was saved from extinction – with all of the earths inhabitants saved by a form of Noah’s Arc in space – where we (humans) continue to live our lives as consumers in luxury. In the end of the movie – humans are able to return to earth after a natural restoration of the habitat.

In the movie “The day after tomorrow” the north Atlantic current stops providing warm water to the northern hemisphere – creating a massive storm surge and throwing parts of the world into a new ice age. Luckily, most people are saved – and the US is able to buy its way out of trouble by forgiving Mexico all national debt, allowing American citizens to move to the warmth of the neighbouring country and live happily ever after.

When in peril – we naturally resort back to the various life experiences that have formed us. Any parent will recognise or be able to look back at a (non-violent) situation that was difficult at best and recognise that the resulting (non-violent) actions were often mirrored from one’s own parent’s actions in similar situations. But with our modern media-drenched society – our memories are saturated with memories from movies. I am sure many can relate to several situations or phrases one has used/copied straight from a movie scene, or other media.

The successful series “Myth Busters” debunked many of the movie myths that had become universal truths. I am sure it came to a surprise to many when it was proven that cars do not explode when a bullet pierces the petrol/diesel tank. Neither are you protected from gunfire if you stand behind a door (unless it’s made of reinforced steel). Of course, there were many debunking’s of what was otherwise accepted truths from Hollywood movies. But some truths were not addressed – such as:  the “Hero always comes to the rescue” or “There is always some form of happy ending” or “at no time does everybody die”.

Derealization is a state of mind where one’s perception of the external world is that it is not real. To many, the global warming crises is perceived either as a conspiracy theory or as overexaggerated truths, marketed so as to further enrich the wealthiest 0,1%. Certainly, if everyone accepted the universal truth that we are polluting our planet, overheating our planet and causing mass extinctions to a level that it threatens our survival – then masses of people would be out in the streets, protesting and demanding change. At the very least the problem would be better addressed than it is.

So how does this relate to the current world climate crises you ask? It provides an answer – a thesis – to the question “why doesn’t anyone seem to listen to the outcries – we must do something to save our species from extinction”. We seem to be waiting for the “hero” of the hour to save us – that ingenious machine that cleans all that CO2 from the air, that other machine that removes all those microplastics from our oceans, that massive restoration project that saves our oceans from mass death and extinctions.

But this is no movie. You are not living in a Hollywood blockbuster. The air you breathe is still contaminated with nano-plastics. The water you drink is also, and still, contaminated with both nano- and microplastics. If you die today – and they perform an autopsy to look for plastics in your body – they will find them in your blood and in your tissue – and you cannot change this fact by changing channel. The worlds sea level is currently rising at 3,4mm / year (according to NASA) and the rate of sea level rise is also increasing. The food you eat isn’t the best food you can get. The things you have are not as good as they can be. The stuff we buy is made as cheaply as is humanly possible in relation to the target consumer. And there is no one doing anything to change this!

We - humans, already have the technology - but its too expensive to be used. You need to wake up. You need to help others wake up too. Before it’s too late.